Farmer Business School Training of Trainers Extension Officers Graduate
Over ninety Farmer Business School (FBS) facilitators from both public and private sectors from Migori and Kisumu Counties graduated after successfully completing a 21-day in house training and two months of field practice on delivery of extension services. The graduands will implement specific programmes with great emphasis on sustainable aggregation and collective marketing.
The program dubbed enhancing resilience to covid-19 and floods in western Kenya through farmer business school supported by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in partnership with the County Government of Kisumu, is one of the initiatives under the UN Covid -19 response and recovery strategy.
The program targeted Training of Trainers (TOT) referred to as FBS facilitators. This are technical agriculture officers and lead farmers referred to Community Business Coaches (CBCs) who after undertaking the 21-day training will support farmers throughout the production cycles on various farming techniques.
The focus of the program is to enable farmers to learn and improve their knowledge, change their attitudes and enhance their skills needed for farm commercialization – while working on their own farms. During the program, learning took place at farm level through schools set up in the individual communities.
FAO Assistant country representative in charge of programs Hamisi Williams said the organization is keen on working with the counties to strengthen agricultural systems in order to realize food security.
Hamisi noted that FAO has rolled out a Sh700 million program in the lake region aimed at enhancing agricultural production and build the resilience of farmers to survive the growing effects of climate change within the region.
"FAO is in a journey to support the counties realize food sufficiency through helping farmers build resilience that will enable them survive the underlying climatic challenges over a long period of time," he said.
"We developed the FBS to empower farmers on how to make their farming ventures more profitable while responding to the market demand. The school enables farmers to improve their knowledge, change attitude and enhance skills needed for farm commercialization," Hamisi added.
He noted that the farming communities have had a few setbacks in matters of food production and supply during the pre-Covid-19 period, the rising water levels of Lake Victoria resulting in flooding and many other epidemics affected their livelihoods.
During the Covid-19 pandemic with the lockdown and reduced productivity in most basic needs food remained a highly demanded commodity.
FAO Support to Farmers through the FBS
Since February 2021, Young farmers (women and youth) and county extension officers were trained on selected value chains namely; aquaculture, local poultry, African indigenous vegetables and soya beans. The FBS program is changing the mindset towards aggregated productions, value addition and strategic marketing.
“To the graduands, today you are joining ranks of a very special group that has had a training (for 21 days). This is in compliance with the requirements set by the global Field Schools support forum. You are a blend of county extension officers, private extension and community business coaches.”
He further told the graduands “With the skills you have gained through this program and the demand for human food and animal feed, you are slowly and surely entrenching yourselves in rewarding ventures. The solution is in scaling up farmer Business programs and leveraging on block chain technology”.
Hamisi said that FAO was committed to supporting county governments eradicate the migratory African Armyworms that have so far affected 33 counties leaving hundreds of farmers counting losses.
The FAO Head of the Inclusive Value Chains Sub program, Tito Arunga said that Kisumu County remains a net importer of food products, while there is still a huge unmet market demand for various agricultural products, including fish, poultry, vegetables among others. “The increased extension capacity should also translate to increased productivity in order to take care of the market deficit,” he added.
Mr. Hamisi Williams who presided over the two events on behalf of the FAO Country Representative, Carla Mucavi was joined by the Migori Agriculture Chief Officer Elijah Gambere and Kisumu CECM Agriculture Gilchrist Okuom during the two events that were held separately at Maranatha Assemblies and Tom Mboya Labor college in Migori and Kisumu respectively.
The events which were graced by representatives from Migori and Kisumu counties and other stakeholders, were marked by a series of exhibitions from farmers in select value chains namely: Poultry, Soya Beans (Migori County) Aquaculture and green leafy vegetables (Kisumu County)
For More Information Contact
Pauline Akolo
Communications Specialist, FAO Kenya
Mobile: +254 790 219954
Email: [email protected]